After a very exciting week, I'm happy to write to all of you on a very relaxed Sunday afternoon. My computer decided this week was as good a time as any to throw a hissy fit and momentarily break down. I was without computer for about 2 days, BUT, solved the problem. And as you can see, I'm back up and running. The solution did however take 2 days of me running around Paris with my computer and external harddrive on my back as I went from small independent computer store to the next, looking for some sort of help. And [View Full Entry]

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Greetings to all! I have officially returned from the weekend away, and let me just say, it was definitely away. Two and a half hours on the TGV (Train de Grand Vitesse... literally "very fast train") and a short bus ride and we found ourselves in the Rhone-Alpes region of France, in an area known as La Drome in the southeast. We spent our first night in Valence, a town right next to the Rhone river, only to wake up very early Saturday morning to jump on a bus and drive out to Hauterives, which is a tiny town quite literally [View Full Entry]

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just to keep everyone up to date, i am off to the Drome this weekend. actually, in about 2 hours. this week has been rather busy (aren't they all?) with a paper on the dialogue between two words from two different french "thinkers" and finally picking a class at the sorbonne (the Femme Fatale in literature) along with the weekly load of classes, homework, french, going out with people, making yummy dinners (stir fry!), and still getting good amounts of sleep. so, alas, there will be no extremely long update this weekend, because i will be down in the south of [View Full Entry]

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sorry for the wait of almost a full entire week until you got to hear back from me! let's just say it's been a very long and busy week. i have now officially settled into life here in the 20th on Rue Boyer. My hosts name, just so you shall sit in anticipation no longer, is Aldona. Her daughter's name sounds something like Lila, but it could be spelled differently. you know the french and those silent consonants! (THEY LOVE THEM) We also have, currently living with us (besides yoda), Aldona's friend Jean-Michel. HE is a now -unfortunately- retired tenor saxophone [View Full Entry]

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hello people across the atlantic! (or in matteo's case, my side of the atlantic) just to keep you posted, I have now moved to a new, second, place of living. I am now living with a woman (I am not quite sure what her first name is yet, and her last name is a very long polish name that i dont know how to spell yet...) and her 24 year old daughter. ...oh, and their cat. named YODA. it really does have yoda eyes too, when you look right at it. I have to say, in my quick interactions with yoda, [View Full Entry]

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this is just a quick post for all... mainly for photos and such from the weekend... but also for a momentous occasion that happened yesterday around 2pm. take a look at that first picture there...and tell me what you see. could it be? yes. it's me. eating a slice of eggplant. I KNOW I KNOW. it's crazy. ok so now for the real story: yesterday, being part of the weekend that i spent my entire time walking around with people seeing the sights of paris and going in cheap stores and entertaining various visiting friends of christine and jamie, i met [View Full Entry]

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just in case you were wondering, it's been about a month since i've been here. a very interesting month, i'm sure we can all agree on that. things i've discovered since being here: -it gets cold fast in paris. one day it was summer, and then i wake up the next morning and it's 40 degrees. without warning. and being on the 6ieme etage (what would be the 7th floor in the US) it gets kind of windy up here. and with a window that doesn't close all the way, even when it's closed...it gets kind of breezy and cold in [View Full Entry]

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Hello once again! Sorry it's been a while, it took about a week to get the internet up and working here. We only just succeeded last night. anyway! it would appear that i was entirely mislead in my imagining what my housing situation was going to be like. I am not living with a single mom, but rather an older lady (les enfants that she was talking about were her grandkids) who lives alone in her apartment in the 13th arrondissement. and the "big modern apartment" is big modern 60's architecture. i'm really in an area of paris that LOOKS like [View Full Entry]

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hello dear readers! (those of you who still read this!) just a quick update, seeing as CIEE has been keeping me very busy with school work and such, I AM FINALLY MOVING OUT OF THE HOTEL! and into my official residence for the year. what i know about it right now is pretty simple: i'm living in the 13th arrondissement in a "big modern apartment" with what would appear to be a single mom and 1, possibly 2, young kids. i don't know what my living space is like, if i have my own bathroom, if there is a washing machine, [View Full Entry]

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Well, another weekend here. I've decided to update this time in more of a photo journal form, if it works out. To make up for the ridiculous amount of work we have suddenly been hit with and to celebrate the fact that now both of CIEE's programs are in Paris (critical studies-that's what I'm in and contemporary french studies) we had a planned excursion today organized by CIEE to Vaux le Vicomte. basically a huge chateau an hour and a half outside of Paris. Just some fun facts about it that no one really told us so I decided to look [View Full Entry]

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